PRESENTATION  OF  THE  CROSS  OF  HONOR 


THE  LIBRARY  OF  THE 

UNIVERSITY  OF 

NORTH  CAROLINA 


THE   COLLECTION  OF 
NORTH   CAROLINIANA 


Cp970.76 


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PRESENTATION 


•OF"   ■• 


The  Cross  of  Honor, 


TO 


* 


yETERANS  *  *   ^        QP  ^„^ 

*   *   *  CONFEDERATE    /^RMY. 


CAPE  FEAR  CHAPTER. 

QAUGHTERS  OF  THE   QONFEDERACY. 

JANUARY  19th,  1901, 
Wilmington,  North  Carolina. 


Review  Job  Office  Print, 
Wilmington,  N.  C. 


...ADDRESS... 

—by- 
Mrs.  Gaston  Meares. 


V 


ETERANS     AND     HeROES     OF     OUR    GREAT    WaR     FOR 

Southern  Independence: 


lu  the  name  of  the  Cape  Fear  Daughters  of  the  Con- 
federacy, I  bid  you  welcome  on  this  our  Confederate 
holiday — the  birthday  of  Robert  E.  Lee  ! 

Just  forty  years  ago  our  quiet  land  was  stirred  bj-  a 
great  uprising  of  its  people.  The  tyranny  of  might  had 
forced  upon  us  an  unnatural  and  unwelcome  war.  Sub- 
mission had  ceased  to  be  a  virtue  and  at  the  call  of  their 
sovereign  States,  from  every  section  of  the  South,  there 
poured  a  mighty  host  of  men  going  forth  to  meet  the  foe. 
^  Saying  good-by  to  peaceful  homes  and  all  else  that  men 
X  hold  dear,  thev  set  their  faces  to  the  front  and  never 
faltered;  going  out,  they  knew  not   whither,  but  trustful 


and  strong  in  the  righteousness  of  the  cause  for  which 
they  were  to  fight. 

Four  years  later,  with  hearts  quivering  with  woe  and 
eyes  blinded  with  tears,  we  saw  the  broken  remnants  of 
that  great  army  coming  back  in  straggling  squads  to 
ruined  and  desolated  homes.  Scarred  and  maimed  by 
battle  wounds,  hungry  and  sick  and  destitute,  branded 
with  the  cruelties  of  prison  life,  their  hearts  crushed  and 
bleeding,  the  "Bonnie  Blue  Flag"  trailing  in  the  dust  of 
conquest,  our  noble  President  in  hopeless  captivity,  with 
kingly  dignity  wearing  for  his  people  a  felon's  chains  in 
a  prison  cell. 

Ah!  those  days  of  bitter  anguish!  Can  they  ever  be 
forgotten?  Can  we  wonder  that  "our  people's  hopes  were 
dead?" 

The  memories  of  the  golden  deeds  of  those  four 
heroic  years  were  all  that  was  left  to  us;  and  while  you 
men,  with  greater  heroism  than  even  war  had  called  forth, 
took  up  again  the  battle  of  life's  duties,  and  fought  it 
out  to  glorious  success,  we  women  gathered  up  those 
memories,  enshrined  them  in  our  hearts,  gloried  in  our 
heroes,  treasured  as  a  sacred  trust  the  noble  army  of 
martyrs  who  never  came  back  to  us;  and  still,  wiHi  un- 
swerving devotion  to  the  cause  for  which  they  fought,  we 
honor  all  who  followed  the  banner  of  the  Southern  Cross 
till  it  was  furled  forever. 


Let  me  show  you  a  memento  of  those  times  you  well 
remember.  I  have  here  a  pair  of  silver  cuff  buttons 
mounted  on  a  card  for  preservation,  and  thus  inscribed: 
"These  buttons  were  made  from  the  two  identical  silver 
quarters  paid  to  a  Confederate  soldier  at  the  final  distri- 
bution of  specie,  just  prior  to  the  surrender  of  General 
Joseph  E.  Johnston  at  Durham,  N    C.  in  1865. 

"They  represent  four  years  hard-earned  pay  to  a 
weather-beaten  "Confed,"  who  had  them  decorated  with 
the  colors  he   fought  under." 

Ah,  what  a  tale  they  tell  !  Such  was  your  guerdon 
and  reward,  but  'twas  all  your  country  had  left  to  give. 

And  there  another — (pointing  to  a  tattered  old  flag 
full  of  bullet  holes) — a  pitiful  relic,  but  we  "treat  it 
gently  for  'tis  holy" — 'tis  the  tattered  fragment  of  the 
once  beautiful  flag  of  '.he  Third  North  Carolina  Regiment 
of  State  troops.  That  was  one  of  our  own  home  Regi- 
ments— the  one  I  knew  most  about — in  which  I  had 
great  personal  interest.  Its  officers,  some  of  whom  had 
been  members  of  the  old  "Wilmington  Light  lufan'.ry, 
were  all  men  cf  the  "Free  City  on  the  Cape  Fear."  Its 
companies  were  recruited  from  New  Hanover  and  neigh- 
boring counties.  It  was  a  gallant  band  and  we  were 
very  proud  of  it,  and  it  is  something  now  for  me  to  tell 
my  grandsons  (and  they  are  "Sons  of  the  Veterans"  too) 
how  I  took  their  fathers,  little  boys  then,    and  went  with 


the  Third  to  Virginia.  Just  too  late  for  the  first 
Manassas,  we  reached  Richmond  in  time  to  hear  that 
the  cannon  were  booming  in  the  distance,  while  we 
waited  with  bated  breath  for  the  hourly  dispatches  from 
the  battle.  Those  were  the  early  days — the  halcyon 
days  of  hope!  and  when  the  news  came  of  Beauregard's 
first  great  victory  for  the  South,  it  was  hailed  with  joy 
and  acclamation,  and  we  hoped  the  happy  end  was  near 
at  hand.  But,  sad  omen  of  sadder  days  to  come,  the 
glad  news  was  dashed  with  the  inevitable  war  note  of 
sorrow,  for  Bee  and  Bartow  had  fallen  in  the  strife — and 
hundreds  of  the  men  who  wore  the  gre}'  lay  dead  upon 
the  battle-field! 

The  winter  followed,  and  with  the  early  summer 
da3-s  came  the  advance  on  Richmond,  and  the  seven  days 
fight  for  its  defense,  and  when  the  sun  set  upon  that 
fatal  field  of  Malvern  Hill  the  light  of  many  of  our 
hearts  and  homes  was  quenched  in  a  horror  of  great  dark- 
ness, for  Virginia's  soil  was  watered  with  the  precious 
blood  of  many  of  Carolina's  noble  sons. 

The  years  rolled  on;  Chancellorsville  and  the  Wilder- 
ness, Sharpsburg  and  Gettj'sburg,  and  scores  of  others 
wrote  in  letters  of  blood  their  stories  of  unrivalled 
bravery  and  heroism,  of  victory  and  sometimes  of  defeat, 
but  never  of  cowardice  or  treachery. 

At  last  the   scene   shifted    to   our  North   Carolina 


coast.  Fort  Fisber,  our  watchful  sentiuel  upon  the  out- 
posts— the  fortress  we  had  deemed  impregnable — added 
its  chapter  of  superb  defense  andtinal  fall,  and  the  gates 
of  Confederate  supplies  were  closed! 

The  end  soon  followed  at  Appomattox  when  Lee, 
our  own  immortal  Lee,  surrendered  to  overwhelming 
forces  his  good  sword — stainless  as  his  owu  pure  soul  — 
unsullied  as  his  own  bright  honor!     Our  peerless  Lee! 

My  friends,  you  bore  an  honorable  part  in  the  mak- 
ing of  that  wonderful  story  of  the  Southern  Confederacy, 
and  for  that  we  owe  you  a  debt  of  gratitude  and  are 
proud  to  do  you  honor. 

Flashing  across  the  page  of  liistory  like  a  meteor 
athwart  the  sky,  but  glorious  as  the  splendor  of  ihe 
noon-tide  sun — all  too  soon  the  young  republic  went 
down  in  the  darkness  of  disappointment  and  defeat.  The 
Sun  of  Peace  had  never  risen  upon  its  mountain  tops,  its 
fertile  valleys  could  never  laugh  and  sing  with  fruitful 
harvests,  for  there  were  none  to  till  the  land.  From  firs* 
to  last  the  men  were  at  the  front,  fighting  for  "their 
homes,  their  altars  and  their  sacred  rights" — for  tli- 
freedom  they  could  not  win! 

But  "in  song  and  story  it  will  go  sounding  down 
the  ages"  as  one  of  the  greatest  war  records  the  world 
has  ever  known.  LTnequalled  and  unique  in  many 
respects  during  its  brief  continuance,   the  story  of  the 


Confederacy  would  not  be  couuplete  without  its  epilogue 
— for  it  stands  alone  in  the  world's  annals  for  the  loyalty' 
and  devotion  which  after  nearly  half  a  century  of 
humiliation  and  subjection,  of  injustice  and  insult,  still 
glow  in  the  heart  of  every  true  son  and  daughter  of  the 
South. 

Can  any  other  country  tell  of  a  band  of  conquered 
soldiers  so  tenderly  beloved  and  cherished  by  the  people 
for  whom  they  fought — and  failed?  Other  nations  have 
had  their  conquering  heroes  and  welcomed  them  with 
triumphal  processions  and  bii^lt  their  temples  to  victory; 
but  our  monuments  are  inscribed  only  to  'The  Con- 
federate Dead" — our  processions  are. the  yearly  pilgrim- 
age of  Memorial  Day  to  the  thousands  of  sacred  spots 
that  dot  the  land,  where  rest  the  braves  who  fought  a 
good  tight,  and  gave  their  lives  for  the  cause  that  was 
lost! 

Ah,  deariy  do  we  love  the  cold  dead  hands  that 
bore  the  banner  of  the  Stars  and  Bars  aloft — conquered 
indeed  it  was,  but  stained  never,  save  by  their  own  life 
blood.  And  no  less  do  we  love  to  honor  the  battle- 
scai'red Veterans  who  are  with  us  to-day;  sole  representa- 
tives of  the  glories  and  the  sorrovss  of  the  dead  past. 

I  regard  it  as  a  crowning  honor  of  my  long  life  that 
the  Cape  Fear  Chapter  of  the  United  Daughters  of  the 
Confederacy,    have    chosen    me   their   representative    to 


bestow  upon  you  the  Southern  Cross  of  Honor.  Simple 
bronze  l)adges  the}'  are — unostentatious  and  of  little 
intrinsic  value — but  worthy  of  your  acceptance,  and  a  fit 
inheritance  for  your  children's  children,  as  symbols 
of  Confederate  endurance  and  valor,  and  as  tokens  of 
woman's  undying  appreciation  of  all  that  is  grand  and 
heroic  in  men  who,  great  in  action,  have  proved  them- 
selves greater  in  defeat.  Wear  then  these  badges 
proudly  on  your  breast  as  gifts  of  the  women  of  the 
South  who  are  proud  to  be  called  "Daughters  of  the 
Confederacy." 

Soon  life's  long  warfare  will  be  ended  and  with  j'our 
own  Stonewall,  the  good  and  great,  3-ou  too  must  "cross 
the  river  and  rest  under  the  shade  of  the  trees."  When 
the  last  reveille  shall  wake  you  from  that  sleep,  may 
each  one  of  you  find  an  immortal  crown  of  true  victory 
awaiting  him  in  the  sweet  and  blessed  country  of  ever- 
lasting peace! 

God  bless  you  all.      Amen. 


UNIVERSITY  OF  N.C.  AT  CHAPEL  HILL 


00032758061 

This  book  must'  not 
be  token  from  the 
Librory  building. 


